Fairphone Fairbuds XL review: admirable goals, awful product

I bought the Fairphone Fairbuds XL with my own money at a recent sale for 186.75 EUR, plus 15 EUR for shipping to Estonia. The normal price for these headphones is 239 EUR.

This post is not sponsored.

I admire what Fairphone wants to achieve, even going as far as getting the Fairphone 5 as a replacement for my iPhone X.

Failing to repair my current headphones, I went ahead and decided to get the Fairphone Fairbuds XL as they also advertise the active noise-cancelling feature, and I like the Fairphone brand.

Disclaimer: this review is going to be entirely subjective and based on my opinions and experiences with other audio products in the past. I also have tinnitus.¹

I consulted rtings.com review before purchasing the product to get an idea about what to expect as a consumer.

The comparison headphones

The main point of comparison for this review is going to be the Sony WH-1000XM3, which are premium high-end wireless Bluetooth headphones, with active noise-cancelling (before that feature broke). These headphones retailed at a higher price during 2020 (about 300-400 EUR) so they are technically a tier above the Fairbuds XL, but given that its successsor, the WH-1000XM4, can be bought for 239 EUR new (and often about 200-ish EUR on sale!), then it is a fair comparison in my view.

After I replaced the ear cushions on my Sony WH-1000XM3 headset, the active noise-cancelling feature started being flaky (popping and loud noises occurring with NC on). No amount of cleaning or calibrating fixed it, and even the authorized repair shop could not do anything about it. I diagnosed the issue to be with the internal noise-cancelling microphones and found that these failing is a very common issue for these headsets, even for newer versions of it.

I am unable to compare the active noise-cancelling performance side-by-side, but I can say that the NC performance on the Sony WH-1000XM3 was simply excellent when it did work, no doubt about it.

The Fairphone shop experience

The first issue I had with the product was actually buying it. For some reason, the form would not accept my legal name which has letter “Õ” in it, a common vowel in Estonia. Knowing how poorly Javascript-based client-side validation can be built, I pulled a pro gamer move and copy-pasted my name into the form, which bypassed the faulty check altogether.

Similar issue occurred with the address field, as we also have the letter “Ä” ( and “Ö”, “Ü”, for that matter).

The name

I can understand why Fairphone went with the name “Fairbuds XL”, it kind of made sense in their audio product line, and Apple set a precedent with AirPods Max.

However, there is such a big missed opportunity here: they could’ve called the product…

Fairphones.

Yes, it would cause some confusion about their other product line, which is the Fairphone, but at least I would find the name more amusing.

Packaging

The packaging for the headphones is quite similar to what you’d get with the Fairphone 5: lots of cardboard and seemingly no plastic or otherwise problematic materials.

Aside from the headphones themselves, you also get a nice egg bag, meant to protect your headphones when travelling with them.

It’s okay, but nothing special, and it won’t protect your headphones from physical damage should they fall or get thrown around in a backpack. The Sony headphones come with a solid hardcase, which have done a fantastic job of protecting the headphones over the last 4 years. Longevity of a device depends both on repairability and durability, which is why a hard case would benefit the Fairbuds XL a lot.

Factory defect

My experience with the Fairbuds XL were off to a rocky start.

I noticed that the USB-C cable that connects both sides of the headphones was inserted incorrectly. The headphones worked fine, but you could feel the flat USB-C cable being twisted inside the headband. The fix to this was to carefully push the headband back, disconnect the USB-C cable from the headphones, flip the cable around and reconnect it.

Not a good first impression, but at least the fix was simple enough.

Fit and feel

The Fairbuds XL are not as comfortable as the reference headphones. The ear cushions and headrest are quite hard and not as soft as on the Sony WH-1000XM3. If you get the fit just right, then you probably won’t have issues with wearing these for a few hours at the time, but I found myself adjusting these often to stop them from hurting my ears and head even during a short test.

The ear cups lack any kind of swiveling, which is likely contributing to the comparatively poor fit. Our ears are angled ever-so-slightly forwards, and the Sony WH-1000XM3 feels so much better on the ears as a result of its swiveling aspect.

I also noticed that you can hear some components inside the headphones rattling when moving your head. This noise is very noticeable even during music playback and you don’t need to move your head a lot to hear that rattling. In my view, this is a serious defect in the product.

When the headphones are folded in, the USB-C cable gets bent in the process and gets forced against one of the ear cushions. I suspect that within months or years of use, either the cable will fail or the ear cushion gets a permanent imprint of the USB-C cable position.

The sound

I’m not impressed with the sound that the Fairbuds XL produce. They are not in the same class as the Sony WH-1000XM3, with the default equalizer sounding incredibly bland. Most instruments and sounds are bland and not as clear. That’s the best I can describe it as.

The Fairbuds app can be used to tune the sound via the equalizer, and out of all the presets I’ve found “Boston” to be the most pleasant one to use. Unfortunately the UI does not show how the presets customize the values in the equalizer, which makes tweaking a preset all that much harder.

Compared to the Sony WH-1000XM3, I miss the cripsy sound and the all-encompassing bass, it can really bring all the satisfying details out. Given that I had used the Sony headphones for almost 5 years at this point may also just mean that I had gotten used to how it sounds.

Active noise-cancelling

The active noise-cancelling performance is nowhere near the Sony WH-1000XM3-s. The effect is very minor, and you’ll be hearing most of the surrounding sounds.

Touching the active noise-cancelling microphones on the sides of the headphones will also make a loud sound inside the speaker, and walking around in a room will result in the headphones making wind noises. Because of this, I consider the active noise-cancelling functionality to be functionally broken.

Microphone quality

I used the Fairbuds XL in a work call, and based on feedback from other attendees, the microphone quality over Bluetooth can be categorized as barely passable, getting a solid 2 points out of 5.

To be fair, Bluetooth microphone quality is also not great on the Sony WH-1000XM3-s, but compared to the Fairphone Fairbuds XL, they are still subjectively better.

Fairbuds app

The Fairbuds app is very simple, and you’d mainly want to use it for setting the equalizer settings and upgrading the firmware. The rest of the functionality seems to be a bunch of links to Fairphone articles and guides.

The first time I installed the app, it told me that a firmware upgrade version V90 is available. During the first attempt, the progress bar stopped.

Second attempt: it almost reached the end and did not complain about a firmware upgrade being available after that.

Third attempt came after I had reinstalled the app. And there it was, the version V90 update, again. This time it got stuck at 1%.

I’m probably still on the older version of the firmware, but I honestly can’t tell.

Bluetooth multi-device connecting

This is a feature that I didn’t know I needed in my life.

With the reference Sony WH-1000XM3-s, whenever I wanted to switch where I listen to music from, I had to disconnect from my phone and then reconnect on the desktop, which was an annoying and manual process.

With the Fairbuds XL, I can connect the headphones to both my laptop and phone and play media wherever, the headphones will switch to whichever device I’m actually using! This, too, has its quirks, and there might be a small delay when playing media on the other device, but I’ve grown so accustomed to using this feature now and can’t imagine myself going back to using anything else.

This feature is not unique to the Fairbuds XL as other modern wireless headphones are also likely to boast this feature, but this is the first time I’ve had the opportunity to try this out myself. It’s a tremendous quality of life improvement for me.

However, this, too, is not perfect. If I have the headphones connected to my phone and laptop, and I change to headset mode on the laptop for a meeting, then the playback on the phone will be butchered until I completely disconnect the headphones from the laptop. This seems like a firmware issue to me.

The controls

The Fairbuds XL has one button and one joystick. The button controls the active noise-cancelling settings (NC on, Ambient sound, NC off), plus the Bluetooth pairing mode.

The joystick is used to turn the device on, switch songs and control the volume, and likely some other settings that relate to accepting calls and the like.

Coming from the Sony WH-1000XM3, I have to say that I absolutely LOVE having physical buttons again! It’s so much easier to change the volume level, skip songs and start/stop playback with a physical button compared to the asinine touch surface solution that Sony has going on.

The joystick is not perfect, skipping a song can be a little bit tricky due to how the joystick is positioned, you can’t always get a good handle due to your fingers hitting the rest of the headphone assembly. That’s the only concern I have with it. If the joystick was a little bit concave and larger, then that may make some of these actions easier for those of us with modest/large thumbs.

The audio cue for skipping songs is a bit annoying and cannot seemingly be disabled. The sound effect resembles someone hitting a golf ball with a very poor driver.

The ANC settings button is alright, but it’s not possible to quickly cycle between the three modes, you will have to fully listen to the nice lady speaking and then you can move on to the next setting. I wish that clicking the button in rapid succession would skip through the modes faster.

USB-C port functionality

I was curious to see if the Fairbuds XL worked as normal headphones if I just connected them up to my PC using a USB-C cable. To my surprise, they did! The audio quality was not as good as with Bluetooth, and the volume controls depended on which virtual device you select in your operating system. The Sony WH-1000XM3 do not work like this, the USB-C port is for charging only as far as I’ve tested, but it does have an actual 3.5mm port for wired use.

When connected over Bluetooth and you connect a charging cable, the Fairbuds XL will pause momentarily and then continue playback while charging the battery. This is incredibly handy for a wireless device, especially in situations where you have an important meeting coming up and you’re just about to run out of battery. The Sony WH-1000XM3 will simply power off when you connect a charger cable, rendering them unusable while charging.

Annoying issues

For some reason, whenever I charge my Fairbuds XL, they magically turn on again and I have to shut them off a second time.

I’m never quite sure if I’ve managed to shut the headphones off. It does the jingle that indicates that it’s powered off, but then I come back to it later and I find that they’re powered on again.

Customer care experience

I was so unhappy with the product that I tried out the refunding process for the Fairphone Fairbuds XL.

I ordered the Fairbuds XL on 2025-02-10 and I received them on 2025-02-14, shipped to Estonia. According to Fairphone’s own materials, I can return the headphones without any questions asked, assuming that my use of them matches what can be done at a physical store.

For Fairphone Products, including gift cards, you purchased on the Fairphone Webshop, you have a legal right to change your mind within 14 days and receive a refund amounting to the purchase price of the products and the costs of delivery and return. You are entitled to cancel your purchase within fourteen (14) days from the day the products were delivered to you, without explanation and without any penalties.

In the case of a Cool-off, Fairphone may reduce the refund of the purchase price (including delivery costs) to reflect any reduction in the value of the Products, if this has been caused by your handling them in a way which would not normally be permitted in a shop. This means You are entitled to turn on and inspect Your purchased device to familiarise yourself with its properties and ensure that it is working correctly – comparable to the conditions that are permitted within a shop.

I followed their instructions and filed a support ticket on 2025-02-16. On 2025-02-25, I had not yet received any contact from Fairphone and I asked them again under the same ticket. On 2025-03-07, I received an automated message that apologized for the delay and asked me to not make any additional tickets on the matter.

I’m still waiting for an update for the support ticket over a month later, while the headphones sit in the original packaging.

Based on the experiences by others in the Fairphone community forum, it seems that unacceptably large delays in customer service are the norm for Fairphone.

Fairphone, if you want to succeed as a company, you need to make sure that the one part of your company that’s directly interfacing with your actual paying customers needs to be appropriately staffed and resourced. A bad customer support experience can turn off a brand evangelist overnight.

Closing thoughts

I want Fairphone to succeed in their mission, but products like these do not further the cause.

The feature set of the Fairbuds XL seems competent, and I’m willing to give a pass on a few minor issues if the overall experience is good, but the unimpressive sound profile, broken active noise-cancelling mode, multiple quality issues and poor customer service mean that I can’t in good conscience recommend the Fairphone Fairbuds XL, not even on sale.

Perhaps less resources should be spent on rebranding and more on engineering good products.